8
Geotechnical News December 2010
CGS News
efforts of the Local Organizing Com-
mittee under the leadership of
Charles
Kwok, Brian Moorman, Jim Hen-
derson,
and
Rob Armstrong
. We
thank them, and their team, for a very
enjoyable conference.
An important tradition during our
annual CGS conference is the presen-
tation of the Colloquium, which was
given this year by
Corey Froese
from
the Alberta Geological Survey. The
Colloquium speaker for 2011 was an-
nounced by the Chair of the Geotechni-
cal Board (GRB),
Dieter Stolle
. The
committee has selected
Craig Lake
of Dalhousie University to present the
Colloquium in Toronto. It was also
announced that the GRB has selected
a Vice-Chair,
James Blatz
, who will
take over the Chair position in 2011.
A number of Awards were presented
to CGS members during the Calgary
conference and the identity of many
recipients is provided elsewhere in
this issue. However, I would like to
mention here that CGS has awarded
the R.F. Legget Medal, its most pres-
tigious award, to
Dennis Becker,
who
received the 2010 Medal during the
Legget Luncheon.
The 3rd Canadian Young Geotech-
nical Engineers and Geoscientists Con-
ference (2010 cYGEGC), organized
by
Kent Bannister
and
Kathy Kalen-
chuk
, was held immediately after the
Calgary conference. This conference,
which took place in Alberta’s beauti-
ful Waterton National Park, was a very
pleasant event for all those who attend-
ed. The presentations from our young
colleagues were quite interesting and
keynotes from experienced colleagues
also raised some important issues for
those considering a career in our field,
whether in industry or in academia. I
came back from this conference more
convinced than ever that the future of
CGS will be in very good hands.
Many other events are at the plan-
ning stage. In particular, our Society
will be joining forces with the ISSMGE
in 2011 to host the combined 64th
CGC - PanAm - PCTLGE (teaching
and learning) Conference in Toronto.
Information on this conference can be
found on their web site:
-
cgc2011.ca. We hope to see you there
in large numbers.
The good reputation of CGS lies,
in part, in the excellence of the Cana-
dian Geotechnical Journal (CGJ) pub-
lished by NRC Press. The Editor of the
journal,
Ian Moore
, has informed the
Board that important changes are ongo-
ing within the publisher. This situation
is being monitored closely as both the
Board and Executive Committee have
expressed the will to maintain their
support to keep the CGJ going strong
and available to all CGS members.
The Cross Canada Lecture Tour
is continuing with two annual tours,
which are funded through the Cana-
dian Foundation for Geotechnique.
A successful fall 2010 tour was com-
pleted by
Sarah Springman,
while the
spring 2010 lecturer was
Don Hayley,
who also attracted very good audiences
across the country.
One of the objectives of the Society
is to develop, maintain and improve
communications among geoprofes-
sionals in Canada. With a country as
large as ours, appropriate communi-
cations means must be used. In this
regard, it has already been announced
that the CGS web site will be modified
significantly, to become more friendly
and efficient. CGS will also be moving
to an earlier registration for members
in the fall, with 2011 renewals accepted
online by the end of November 2010.
Additional information will continue to
be provided to our members by e-mail
and through our regular E-News.
Despite our steady-state member-
ship, the financial state of CGS remains
strong. However, care must be exer-
cised to ensure our long term financial
health as some of the unexpectedly
large revenues of recent years may not
be repeated in the coming years.
As this is my last message to you as
President of the Canadian Geotechnical
Society, I would also like to acknowl-
edge the contributions of colleagues
and close collaborators, and thank
them for their assistance to me and the
Society. In this regard, I would like to
express my gratitude to our three Vice-
Presidents, who have worked with me
on the Executive Committee for two
years:
Doug Stead
, VP Technical,
Stéphanie Perret
, VP Communica-
tions, and
Don Lewycky,
VP Finance.
For the past twelve months, we also
benefited from the collaboration from
the Executive Representatives for the
Local Sections,
Marolo Alfaro
, and
Technical Divisions,
Jitendra Shar-
ma,
who are both completing their
term this year. My work as President
was also greatly facilitated by the con-
tinued support of our Secretary Gen-
eral,
Victor Sowa
, and our CGS Ad-
ministrator,
Wayne Gibson.
I would
like also to thank
Phil Bruch,
Editor of
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Monitor with confidence
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4/27/2010 10:26:09 AM
